112 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts. 



in a court of justice, and the scholiast explains it by ILdyiceKov} 

 Without pausing- to determine whether the word belongs more truly 

 to the Greek or the Latin language in the classic period, we may 

 note that it is used so frequently by early ecclesiastic writers in 

 Greek, before the introduction of pictures, to mean the screen on 

 the western edge of the bema that it is unnecessary to specify any 

 of the quotations. A goodly number are given in Du Gangers 

 Greek Glossary, and in Suicer's Thesaurus of Greek Fathers. 



Upon comparing the very early Latin Church of San Clemente, 

 at Rome, we see exactly how the original Greek idea of a Church was 

 developed and adapted to Italian circumstances and requirements. 



Plans and views are given by Gaily Knight^ and Dr. Rock.^ 

 But these plans require correction by the further researches of Father 

 MuUooly and others* 



In the Greek Church the %op69 for clergy and singers was placed 

 immediately west of the steps of the bema, without any sepai'ation 

 from the nave. In the much larger Italian Churches it was found 

 convenient to fence off a space for clergy and singers in the nave by 

 a low screen, described as no higher than for a person to lean upon.^ 



This space, so fenced off, was not called " cancelli " or " cancellus," 

 but " chorus cantorum." 



But the high screen on the edge of the bema having disappeared 

 as not convenient for the Latin rite, what provision was made for 

 the seclusion and dignity of the sacred mystery? The answer is, 

 the canopy with costly curtains placed on the bema or sanctuary 



1 Cf . Liddell & Scott, Lex., KdyKeXor, Kiy/cXtV. N.B.— The latter form is 

 frequently used as a synonj'm for the screen. Cf. Bingham, ut supra. 



2 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy from the time of Constantine to the 

 fifteenth century, hy Henry Gaily Knight, Esq., F.E.S. F.S.A., vol. i., plates 

 1 and 2 ; Bohn, London, 1842. 



^ Ch. of our Fathers, by Daniel Eock, D.D., vol. i., p. 193 ; Dolman, London, 

 1849. 



* See comparative ground-plan in Basilica of S. Clement, Mullooly ; Eome, 

 Barbera, 1873. 



^ In primitiva Ecclesia peribolus, id est, paries, qui circuit chorum, non eleva- 

 batur, nisi usque ad appodiationem, quod adhuc in quihusdam Ecclesiis observatur, 

 quod ideo fiebat, ut populus videns clerum psallentem, inde bonum sumeret ex- 

 emplum. Durandus, Eationale, Lib. i., cap. iii., n. 35, Lugd. 1672. 



